The EU has announced a € 5 million prize for sustainable projects using blockchain technology. The competition focuses on sustainable social projects. The competition starts this year and will run until 2020.

As technology advances inexorably on the financial markets, solutions in the social sector remain largely untouched, according to the official announcement. The project wants to promote challenges that demand sustainable approaches to the environment and social issues. The advantage of the Blockchain to get along without intermediary institutions is what interests the procurers. For example, the competition aims at scalable, efficient and powerful decentralized solutions for social innovation using blockchain technology.

The EU proposes different sectors for competition. For example, to make the origin of rare raw materials comprehensible through technology and thereby promote fair trade and fairer pay for work. In addition, there would be a more transparent design of production processes. Democratic processes, such as B. Making technology choices is another field the EU recommends to work on. Finally, social networks, which are managed in a decentralized manner and promote the cooperation of the members, are of increased interest.

The criteria

Everyone can participate in principle: individuals, companies, organizations, research centers, students, start-ups etc. The presented projects are finally evaluated by a jury. The criteria for the evaluation are as follows:

social influence: both the potential and the already achieved implementation of the solution (eg number of users of a platform)
Decentralization and governance: Improving transparency and responsibility while maintaining privacy and anonymity
Ease of use and inclusiveness
Cost-effectiveness at a high level: cost-efficiency (including energy consumption), scalability, security and sustainability
clear advantage of the solution for Europeans on the social, economic and / or ecological level

Blockchain solutions in the social sector are actually scarce. While new developments are being made in the aviation, energy and, of course, financial sectors, competition in the EU is sure to fill a notch to be filled.

Virtual currency is not legal tender, is not backed by the government, and accounts and value balances are not subject to consumer protections. The information does not constitute investment advice or an offer to invest.